David Moyes has revealed how he turned Marko Arnautovic’s West Ham form around.
Marko Arnautovic led West Ham to a win over former club Stoke City this weekend, highlighting his turnaround in form.
After Moyes took over, The Sun had claimed Arnautovic could be sold in January – but this looks far from the case now.
Arnautovic has been picked to lead the line for the Hammers, and he is making a case to remain as their first choice striker.
After their weekend win, Moyes told West Ham’s official website how he managed to get Arnautovic back on track after a poor start to his career.
Moyes says he gave the Austrian a pretty simple ultimatum: “When I came in, I think they said they were a bit disappointed with Marko, so we simply said ‘You better run around, because if you don’t, we won’t play you’.
“He’s said ‘OK, I’ll do that’ and as you well know, he’s a good technician, he’s got ability and if we can marry that with his work-rate, then hopefully we’ll have a good player.”
It was a straightforward instruction, but one which appears to have worked; Arnautovic now has two goals in his last three games, including the winner against Chelsea.
The words were reminiscent of Harry Redknapp’s famous instruction to striker Roman Pavluchenko for Tottenham, with the manager telling SkySports: “Roman has got an interpreter. I just said to him at half-time ‘just run about’. That’s the truth. I can’t claim to be tactically cleverer than that. That’s all I said to him.”
Some strikers just need a bit of a jolt, and Moyes like Redknapp before him, has managed to find a way to get through to his player.
Arnautovic’s West Ham career got off to a terrible start a red card in just his second match for the club, but now he appears to be winning fans round, and has already earned the faith of his new manager.
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